Sitting Bull, the famous chief, had always hated the palefaces, and, nursing the wrongs of his people, he now refused to sign a treaty giving up certain lands. He had been threatened by bumptious officials, and on the strength of these threats he had gone among the powerful Sioux tribes, and exhorted them to prepare for war.
Such men as Generals Sheridan, Canby, Miles, Custer, and others foresaw serious difficulty with the Indians at a time when the general public in the East had been lulled into a sense of security in the belief that the Indian question had been settled for all time.
Buffalo Bill’s mission was to soothe and quiet the Indians, so far as possible; at the same time he was bringing to justice the leaders in as corrupt a gang as ever went unhanged. He found the whites not only robbing the red men, but at war among themselves over grazing rights.
Enforcement of the law was a farce, and right was much a case of might.
Bad men flourished and boasted themselves terrors of the universe. These wild and woolly fellows seldom met, but exercised their blatant powers over the more submissive portion of the public.
Buffalo Bill’s arrival had not been heralded, and he was not recognized at the most pretentious hostelry of the Gallatin Valley. With his pards he made up a quiet little party, who might have been attracted to town by the trial. No one seemed interested to the point of curiosity, and the scout was gratified that it was so. The men he was after might not so soon take alarm.
It was a typical border aggregation that thronged the tavern that night, the air filled with tobacco smoke and fumes of liquor and vibrating with loud talk.
Late in the evening Fighting Dan Grey appeared. He was “liquored up” and looking for trouble. He was dodged by all who could avoid him, but led men by twos and threes to the bar to drink his health. He was well supplied with the yellow metal, and everybody had to drink whom he invited.
Later Dan’s mood changed, and he wanted to play cards. He roped in one man, and desired two others. Far back in a corner the scout and the Laramie man sat smoking and watching the constantly changing aspect of a night gathering of Westerners going through all stages of acquiring a state of intoxication.
Fighting Dan espied them, and led his victim thither.